Usha Singh

Thepla is to a Gujarati person, what a baguette is to a French man. Eat it any which way you want to and with any accompaniment of your choice and it still tastes amazing. It is healthy and nutritious Gujarati bread, made with flours, grated veggies and spices. It was created by the woman of the community for their travelling husbands, as Gujarati’s are mainly merchants, the men travelled from village to village to sell their merchandise, however they were not always assured of getting something vegetarian to eat on their journeys and thus the THEPLA was invented. This spiced roti keeps well for a good few days and eaten with some pickle or curd is a nourishing meal. When on a long train journey in India, you will find the Gujarati people opening up their TIFFINS (food cans), and they will have their thepla, maybe a vegetable curry and a variety of pickles.

 Thepla

350ml cake flour

75ml chick pea flour

75ml soya flour

100ml finely chopped baby spinach or fenugreek herbs

5ml chilli powder

5ml coriander powder

5ml cumin powder

10ml salt

50ml oil (approximately)

100ml boiling water (approximately)

Method

1. Sift flours into mixing bowl—add salt and spices-mix well
2. Make a well in the center and add the oil, mix the oil into flour thoroughly and then add the spinach/herbs
3. Using enough boiling water make soft dough, divide dough into portions the size of golf balls
4. This mixture should yield you about 18 Theplas
5. Sprinkle flour on the rolling pin and board when rolling dough into circles and cook like roti on a tawa/griddle pan
6. Serve warm with yogurt, pickles or a vegetable curry

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